The Yard Bryant Park

510 5th Ave, New York, NY 10036

Opening Reception: September 19th, 6:00 - 8:00PM

Gabriel Cosma

Tony Dougherty

For this exhibition, photographers Cosma and Dougherty put together a set of colorful, abstract images centered on the local New York Scene. Dougherty follows graffiti art throughout the city, taking close-ups to transform images considered unwanted into beautiful abstract compositions. Cosma’s photographs depict part of the day to day of the average New Yorker; the subway, turning the tunnel lights into a colorful centerpiece rather than something in the background during the day to day commute.

The Yard Bryant Park

510 5th Ave, New York, NY 10036

Barbara Smith Gioia

Artist Statement

For me, making art is a philosophical pursuit that embraces the dynamics created by the interplay of line, color, pattern and texture within an abstract format. Improvisation is an important part of my process as the works develop and evolve. I’m interested in compositions that banter about and ultimately arrive at completeness through a kind of dialogue between myself and the work. Line is my vehicle for deeply felt personal expression, often alluding to subconscious thought. Entering the unknown, each painting becomes its own journey and arrives with an individuality that describes a particular world. What engages and challenges me most is a process that often combines a variety of different media: monotype, woodcut, silkscreen, and linoleum block prints; ink, oil stick, charcoal and acrylics. From these various media I create works on paper that either stand alone or become the raw material for collage paintings. I work on several paintings simultaneously with each one feeding off the others while adamantly retaining its individuality. As such, the works, be they monotype or collage painting, have a thread connecting them through their shared materials, forms and marks. My paintings are an invitation for viewers to enter a space that is open to interpretation and allows for free association. The works are just as likely to be read as metaphors for contemporary life as personal meditations. The paintings are a reflection of the world as I see it through a nonobjective visual language

Nancy Lasar

Artist Statement

Whether in drawing, painting, or printmaking, the process for me is about layering and energizing space in such a way that objects are fluid, interconnected and full of energy and movement. I try to utilize a variety of lines, marks and media to suggest both stasis and openness to possibility and transformation as well as the passage of time. As I attempt to describe the multiple realities which intermingle in memory, imagination and daily life, images emerge and diverge – reconfiguring in new relationships. Everything is open and flows back and forth: empty and full, defined by its opposite -fleeting yet tangible – air and space dissecting form and formless in an effort to capture the unity and delight of life experienced, remembered, longed for.

Catherine Kernan

Artist Statement

Catherine has abandoned the depiction of a particular place on the earth, preferring to work in an abstract, improvisatory way at the interface between printmaking andpainting. She prints from large-scale woodblocks in unorthodox ways to build imageslayer by layer in a painterly process of controlled accident.

This work derives from the premise that human relationships with the earth aredynamic, mutable, interactive, and move in ever-evolving cycles of repetition andvariation. This could equally describe the generative potential of printmaking.

Printmaking is a multifaceted and pivotal category of contemporary art studio practice.The many traditional fine art printmaking processes, augmented by ever-expanding options of modern photo and digital technology, are deeply embedded in all forms of contemporary art. From singular impressions to the infinite digital replication of images, the concepts of transfer and replication are lodged in our psyches and expectations.

Ann Aspinwall

Artist Statement

My work of the past few years employs the fundamental elements of line and a few select colors to suggest luminous expanses of water, landscape, and sky in certain light and atmospheric conditions. The lines are all hand-drawn from my imagination. I draw with immense concentration and deliberation in order to invest each individual line with significant information to convey the topographical features of the invented terrain. In this endeavor I have been aided by my research on contour maps and the work of cartographer Kitiro Tanaka. The optical effects of highlights, shadows, and depth are achieved through variations of line density and the meticulous choice of colors.

The title Spirit of Place pays homage to the British author Lawrence Durrell (and hiscollection of letters and essays on travel of the same title), whose incomparablyperceptive and elegant descriptions of landscapes render the distinctive feel of a place.

As a photographer, particularly a long-exposure photographer, I’m interested in the essence of a place – the signature – which emerges when the surface ephemera give way to the underlying structure.

In cities like New York and Chicago – cluttered with people, buildings and things – the horizon is obscured. The periphery reveals the horizon, and like a cross-cut section, the nature of the ground on which the city is built.

These images are portraits of the periphery. During exposures of [often] several minutes, what’s fleeting escapes the lens; what’s fundamental bores into the image. Much as a painter manipulates paint, I exploit the physical properties of film to tease out the subtle beauty of place.

Like portraits of people, these images are an exploration of the spaces' essence, discrete vocabulary, mannerisms, structures, shapes, colors, climates and stories told by the elements left behind: failed piers, jetties, efforts to manage the transitions between land and water. They are also a celebration of the beautiful surprises found within the city limits at the water’s edge.

Denise Amses

Artist Statement:

My artistic practice traverses painting, prints, and public glass and light installations. Though working in numerous media, a few themes permeate my artwork. I engage with natural and geometric forms, plant and biological structures, and the imagery of the cosmos.

I draw from observation, visual interpretations of scientific phenomena, and the boundaries between representation and abstraction. These are points of departure. Central to my approach is the creation of a personalized universe, where I visually explore everything from the details of a dandelion seed to the geometric expression of an exploding star. In my process, I mask, cut, and use translucent layering to create depth and interplay between shape, surface, and color.

Visual Journal is a large body of work, comprised of stream of consciousness snapshots, taken, as I roam the world. Time and space are central to the work. In 1997 I bought a date stamp Leica Minilux to correlate my Visual Journal with my daily written practice. In 2003 I began mounting the rolls into grids on museum board, in the order shot. There are approximately 1,310 Visual Journal rolls to date. The first roll is from 1969. The Work is a portal to my soul, what a journey it is.

Photographing Art 35mm Outtakes 1990’s are from shooting with an archaic Nikon F. The Outtakes are the first reject shots of each roll taken while loading the camera. I have photographed art as long as I have lived in NYC.

My paintings focus on the physicality of painting and the energy involved in mark making. I am as much concerned with the application of paint as I am with removing paint and building up the layers. I explore the use of line, movement and depth within the canvas. I employ ideas I’ve learned from the printmaking process by putting down layer upon layer, then wiping areas out to reveal the patina underneath. It’s what has always compelled me as an artist, a strong sense of the ancient, the stratums of history and time revealed in the present.

Constantly engaging with my curiosity, fascination and unfolding surprises allows me to understand the natural process of painting. I delight in discoveries from experimentation with paint application, water and new ways of mark making. I continue to be inspired by the world of plants, ancient calligraphic manuscripts, doodling, color in my environment, weather patterns and the movement I see in nature.

My larger paintings echo environmental issues that are a result of global warming and other effects connected to mans activities. I have produced work from my research and experience in habitats that include degraded coral reef ecosystems, coal ash/oil spill polluted areas, rainforest deforestation, Everglades restoration, and more.

I am currently working on a series that was motivated by the dire situation of the decline of the annual Monarch butterfly migration.

This body of work consists of studies I call “Organisms”. They are brief glimpses of the ecology I see walking through the woods, scuba diving, or even acknowledging the life energy in a puddle of stagnant water. I think of my work as a bridge to communicate wonder as well as concern for the natural world, and I strive to promote conservation as an artist ambassador for the environment.

Tom Judd’s paintings are acts of accumulation. They reclaim visions from the past. The show, comprised of Judd’s recent paintings, explores the mythic patterns of post-war American society. More specifically it probes our uneasy relationships with nature and culture, and the memory of modernism. Drawing on influences such as Chicago Imagist Jim Nutt and the early work of David Hockney, his painting call attention to the interplay of narratives, both historical and artistic. What stories do we create to make sense of the past? What are the interactions between myth, memory, and painting? This show invites the viewer to bring his or her own meaning, understanding and associations to bear when interpreting the work. As Judd says, “ask a stranger what his life is about and he will talk about your life. Alas, the history of the world!”

Tom Judd was born in Utah and studied at University of Utah and the Philadelphia College of Art. For his first show, he was part of a survey of contemporary drawing at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He has since shown both paintings and installations internationally, is part of the permanent collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and has received fellowships from Tandem Press and MacDowell Colony. He lives in Philadelphia.

These photographs represent work from three different projects, but are related by their exploration of scale, shape and perspective. Often monochromatic, my intent is to alter what I see by creating layers of the elements in nature. Ultimately this work is about freedom.

The most current work is an ongoing portfolio of landscapes primarily from the Catskill Mountains. They are often shot at dusk or dawn, and enveloped in fog, rain or snow. Initially, the vast spaces appear empty and silent. It is only by observing more closely that I envision the existence of other shapes on a flat plane (this is unclear: does she mean that she observes more closes when shooting, or when looking at the taken photograph? Or is it the observer who envisions “the other shapes”)

The second project retraces the original Pony Express route from St Joseph, MO to Sacramento, CA. This was developed with the artist Mary Carothers in Louisville, KY. We received grants from the Kentucky Foundation for Women and Pratt Institute to photograph a route that was, in many cases unchanged from 1863.The story of the Pony Express is central to the mythic world of the American West, and plays an important role in America’s historical and cultural self-image.

The final group of photographs is a selection inspired by 15 years of work on a ranch in Arizona. I then began working with my own horses, photographing in Europe, and at farms all over the USA. The horse photos are shot as landscapes and sculptures. They are a type of environmental portrait that also relies on its surroundings to determine its actions. They are my muses.

For 17 years, I’ve divided my time between the U.S. and Turkey. I’ve also had the opportunity to travel extensively. Living in two diverse cultures and experiencing others through travel have provided rich visual imagery for my work.

My gouache series of the last ten years, entitled “Threads”, includes elements from art, literature, and world culture. What seems diverse is seamlessly fused into dynamic story-telling compositions.

“Threads”, tells the stories of how diverse peoples, places and times converge.